Binance CZ warns Google still displays crypto phishing sites

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has issued a warning that Google search results continue to promote cryptocurrency phishing and scamming websites.

Despite Google’s strict policies on cryptocurrency marketing for its ad service, scammers have continued to slip through the cracks in recent years. Scam websites have been displayed higher than legitimate crypto and blockchain projects at times.

CZ warned in an October 27 tweet that when searching CoinMarketCap on Google, phishing sites with the “ad” tag were appearing in front of the actual website.

CoinMarketCap, one of the most popular crypto data aggregators on the market, was acquired by Binance in April 2020 for an undisclosed sum. Given its popularity, a significant amount of traffic could be directed to these scam ads.

Phishing websites can be difficult to detect in some cases because they generally use copycat URLs to trick people who aren’t paying attention into clicking. One of the websites CZ highlighted, for example, was misspelled “coinomarketcaap.”

SlowMist, a blockchain security firm, discovered a Terra (LUNC)-related phishing scam in April this year, in which bad actors were using Google Ads to run copycat websites with Achor Protocol and Astroport branding.

Last week, hackers hijacked the Gate.io Twitter account to spread phishing attacks. Gate.io is one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the industry.